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A game that revolves around capture the flag doesn't need any lore. I'm perfectly happy just knowing that Tribe A hates Tribe B and wants to capture all their flags. Going beyond that is completely unnecessary, we don't need the Tribes equivalent of "Midi-chlorians"

Tofu wrote: Here be Littleboots, destroyer of threads and master of drunkposting.

A game that revolves around capture the flag doesn't need any lore. I'm perfectly happy just knowing that Tribe A hates Tribe B and wants to capture all their flags. Going beyond that is completely unnecessary, we don't need the Tribes equivalent of "Midi-chlorians"

You are aware that the Tribes manual was 400 pages of color illustrated, absolutely wonderful backstory? Hell, all those future Dynamix games were tied together.

A game that revolves around capture the flag doesn't need any lore. I'm perfectly happy just knowing that Tribe A hates Tribe B and wants to capture all their flags. Going beyond that is completely unnecessary, we don't need the Tribes equivalent of "Midi-chlorians"

Who said it needs any? I just said that I'd like more.

Regardless, if it's as good as either of the first two games, I wouldn't "need" anything else.

I'm probably so late to the party on this, but did anyone play Firefall at PAX East?

I did, it was actually pretty good. A bit buggy yet. The one thing that threw me off was that to use your jetpack, you hold down jump. Otherwise the match was only 5v5, so the map was pretty small, I don't know if there will be larger maps with more players. There is no skiing though

You know, I actually kinda hope they add in some PvE stuff. I mean, obviously, the major focus should be on PvP (or should I say, TRIBES)... but if they throw in some missions to be completed on occasion, it could be a decent way to get some lore going.

Hmm, or if they find a way to get some event maps going, where the event battle tells part of the story.

I'd just really like to see some of the story finally come through in the game. There was some amazing writing, and the game was really atmospheric. Just some way to get some lore going for the franchise.

This was posted under the assumption that TRIBES: Ascend was the MMO in development. Turns out it's two different games.

Read that again, two different TRIBES games in development at the same time...

You know, I actually kinda hope they add in some PvE stuff. I mean, obviously, the major focus should be on PvP (or should I say, TRIBES)... but if they throw in some missions to be completed on occasion, it could be a decent way to get some lore going.

Hmm, or if they find a way to get some event maps going, where the event battle tells part of the story.

I'd just really like to see some of the story finally come through in the game. There was some amazing writing, and the game was really atmospheric. Just some way to get some lore going for the franchise.

This was posted under the assumption that TRIBES: Ascend was the MMO in development. Turns out it's two different games.

Read that again, two different TRIBES games in development at the same time...

Am I in heaven?

For the record, and to prevent further confusion, the MMO is called Tribes Universe.

You know, I actually kinda hope they add in some PvE stuff. I mean, obviously, the major focus should be on PvP (or should I say, TRIBES)... but if they throw in some missions to be completed on occasion, it could be a decent way to get some lore going.

Hmm, or if they find a way to get some event maps going, where the event battle tells part of the story.

I'd just really like to see some of the story finally come through in the game. There was some amazing writing, and the game was really atmospheric. Just some way to get some lore going for the franchise.

This was posted under the assumption that TRIBES: Ascend was the MMO in development. Turns out it's two different games.

Read that again, two different TRIBES games in development at the same time...

Am I in heaven?

For the record, and to prevent further confusion, the MMO is called Tribes Universe.

Yeah, on the www.tribesuniverse.com website, you can see the two titles on the main page, with a link to the trailer and Ascend site.

Also, reading their forums, they've got posts from the developers.... regarding the sword:

The tribes fiction was that the swords were handed down through the family. ;) so they bring them to battle mounted to their jet-packs. I can't really say on melee combat though, we're not talking about the game-play much yet.

Melee combat, nothing confirmed... However, something that made my grin split my head in half, they referenced the lore. That's one of the best signs I've seen so far, but I might be overly hopeful.

Oh god I want to knock people out of the sky with a spinfusor again. I want to smash their generators and destroy their kiosks. I want to ski down a mountain and skim inches above the ground at hundreds of mph.

I want to hear the dismayed cries of Shazbot and WE NEED MORE DEFENSE!

A game that revolves around capture the flag doesn't need any lore. I'm perfectly happy just knowing that Tribe A hates Tribe B and wants to capture all their flags. Going beyond that is completely unnecessary, we don't need the Tribes equivalent of "Midi-chlorians"

You are aware that the Tribes manual was 400 pages of color illustrated, absolutely wonderful backstory? Hell, all those future Dynamix games were tied together.

God I miss the days of good manuals.

If they want to stick all that poopoo in a manual that's fine. But I don't want any dev time being wasted on a single player mission/back story stuff.

Tofu wrote: Here be Littleboots, destroyer of threads and master of drunkposting.

I don't want any dev time being wasted on a single player mission/back story stuff.

Missions in TRIBES should serve solely as tutorial, and be added in AFTER multiplayer is glidey smooth optimized low-poly glory that can float one hundred and twenty six players, all of whom are on 56k, on a cushion of BUTTERY ANTIGRAVITY GOODNESS.

If Ascend is not the modern equivalent of the old Tribes, it will have failed.

A game that revolves around capture the flag doesn't need any lore. I'm perfectly happy just knowing that Tribe A hates Tribe B and wants to capture all their flags. Going beyond that is completely unnecessary, we don't need the Tribes equivalent of "Midi-chlorians"

You are aware that the Tribes manual was 400 pages of color illustrated, absolutely wonderful backstory? Hell, all those future Dynamix games were tied together.

God I miss the days of good manuals.

If they want to stick all that poopoo in a manual that's fine. But I don't want any dev time being wasted on a single player mission/back story stuff.

I'm probably so late to the party on this, but did anyone play Firefall at PAX East?

I did, it was actually pretty good. A bit buggy yet. The one thing that threw me off was that to use your jetpack, you hold down jump. Otherwise the match was only 5v5, so the map was pretty small, I don't know if there will be larger maps with more players. There is no skiing though

I played it (twice, only game I stood in line for twice). I didn't notice any bugs. I found it a tremendous amount of fun and I think, especially for a Free-2-Play/Download, it will be a fantastic fill-in while we wait for word on Ascend.

Both times I played Assault class whose main weapon feels a tremendous amount like a spinfusor. The jetpack, while tied to jump, felt really, really good. I got into several spinfusor-esc fire fights where the winner was who handled the touch of the jetpack best (thank you years of Tribes).

And as people above are mentioning fond Tribes memories. I still remember picking up the original in Comp-USA just because the box looked cool/different for my first real computer game. I also still have that gorgeous manual. I might have played more hours of the original Tribes than any game since, MMOs included. T2, thanks partly to the bad launch, just never did it for me. It was too... I don't know, complicated. It lost some of the purity/fun of the first, even the first with mods. I will, of course, still play Ascend, I just really hope it can get back in touch with its roots.

A game that revolves around capture the flag doesn't need any lore. I'm perfectly happy just knowing that Tribe A hates Tribe B and wants to capture all their flags. Going beyond that is completely unnecessary, we don't need the Tribes equivalent of "Midi-chlorians"

You are aware that the Tribes manual was 400 pages of color illustrated, absolutely wonderful backstory? Hell, all those future Dynamix games were tied together.

God I miss the days of good manuals.

If they want to stick all that poopoo in a manual that's fine. But I don't want any dev time being wasted on a single player mission/back story stuff.

In other words, you want something that's less than Starsiege: TRIBES was. Got it.

that concept art is looking sexy, although I agree the eagles should have more color because they are pretty hard to notice. If this game takes me back to my tribes/tribes 2 days I wonder if my fiancee will still love me, since you know I will be spending every waking minute with tribes, too bad she isn't a fan of fps

edit: so... i wonder if they are only doing bloodeagle and diamondsword? the tribes ascend website only has those 2 tribes on it, wheres the starwolves and phoenix D:

Vehicles? Yeah, and they could hold multiple people who could fire out of the vehicle with their own weapons.

Vast open maps with complex indoor areas? Every single map.

I would never join a game of TRIBES unless there were AT LEAST 32 people on the map, with 64 being ideal. The map and base sizes were perfect. So much goodness. Was that more than 10 years ago now? OMG.

A game that revolves around capture the flag doesn't need any lore. I'm perfectly happy just knowing that Tribe A hates Tribe B and wants to capture all their flags. Going beyond that is completely unnecessary, we don't need the Tribes equivalent of "Midi-chlorians"

You are aware that the Tribes manual was 400 pages of color illustrated, absolutely wonderful backstory? Hell, all those future Dynamix games were tied together.

God I miss the days of good manuals.

If they want to stick all that poopoo in a manual that's fine. But I don't want any dev time being wasted on a single player mission/back story stuff.

In other words, you want something that's less than Starsiege: TRIBES was. Got it.

Although, I don't think Tribes had a 400 page manual. I remember it being adequate, with some backstory. Google suggests the same, at 80 pages or so. Starsiege was the one with two books, including a compendium of backstory.

... is good, but has nothing on the awesome stuff you got in the Starsiege box. A big ass manual that completely documented every aspect of the game and a big ass Starsiege Universe book that completely documented every aspect of the game universe.

I'm probably so late to the party on this, but did anyone play Firefall at PAX East?

I did, it was actually pretty good. A bit buggy yet. The one thing that threw me off was that to use your jetpack, you hold down jump. Otherwise the match was only 5v5, so the map was pretty small, I don't know if there will be larger maps with more players. There is no skiing though

I played it (twice, only game I stood in line for twice). I didn't notice any bugs. I found it a tremendous amount of fun and I think, especially for a Free-2-Play/Download, it will be a fantastic fill-in while we wait for word on Ascend.

Both times I played Assault class whose main weapon feels a tremendous amount like a spinfusor. The jetpack, while tied to jump, felt really, really good. I got into several spinfusor-esc fire fights where the winner was who handled the touch of the jetpack best (thank you years of Tribes).

Me and a guy from the other team died right on top of each other and since we were both waiting for a revive our models started bouncing off each other and ascended into the atmosphere. One of the devs was watching me play and he just says "Pretend that didn't happen."

At the beginning of the match I played, after figuring out how to jet, I launched out of our base and immediately headshotted another guy on the other side of the map who was also jetting around. Same dev guy just says "Holy shit." So I would also like to thank Tribes.

A game that revolves around capture the flag doesn't need any lore. I'm perfectly happy just knowing that Tribe A hates Tribe B and wants to capture all their flags. Going beyond that is completely unnecessary, we don't need the Tribes equivalent of "Midi-chlorians"

You are aware that the Tribes manual was 400 pages of color illustrated, absolutely wonderful backstory? Hell, all those future Dynamix games were tied together.

God I miss the days of good manuals.

If they want to stick all that poopoo in a manual that's fine. But I don't want any dev time being wasted on a single player mission/back story stuff.

In other words, you want something that's less than Starsiege: TRIBES was. Got it.

TRIBES had no story in it, except the manual. Not even the tutorial had story.

TRIBES 2 only had a bit of story in the tutorial. There was no story in the actual game.

At the beginning of the match I played, after figuring out how to jet, I launched out of our base and immediately headshotted another guy on the other side of the map who was also jetting around. Same dev guy just says "Holy shit." So I would also like to thank Tribes.

If the devs are surprised by that sort of shit, I'm a little worried that they're not really going to be balancing the game for people who can actually play...

As long as we're talking about the TRIBES manual, though, the story stuff was nice but the artwork was awesome.

A game that revolves around capture the flag doesn't need any lore. I'm perfectly happy just knowing that Tribe A hates Tribe B and wants to capture all their flags. Going beyond that is completely unnecessary, we don't need the Tribes equivalent of "Midi-chlorians"

You are aware that the Tribes manual was 400 pages of color illustrated, absolutely wonderful backstory? Hell, all those future Dynamix games were tied together.

God I miss the days of good manuals.

If they want to stick all that poopoo in a manual that's fine. But I don't want any dev time being wasted on a single player mission/back story stuff.

In other words, you want something that's less than Starsiege: TRIBES was. Got it.

TRIBES had no story in it, except the manual. Not even the tutorial had story.

TRIBES 2 only had a bit of story in the tutorial. There was no story in the actual game.

How is it less than when the original had none?

It was a cheap shot.

I actually liked TRIBES 2 quite a bit more, and didn't care for the "single player" portion. Still, I bought a copy of T1 just for the packaging. I loved the book with the literature it included, as well as the artwork.

I understand that requesting some decent literature with a game might be a bit out there, especially in an age of digitally delivered content, and with a game that's an FPS title... But TRIBES is everything I could want in an FPS, and I don't think it's unreasonable for me to request a particular feature when so many others are doing the same thing... especially when that feature doesn't effect gameplay at all.

I cant wait to play firefall, I have a feeling my tribes skills will transition nicely. I wonder if the dev that said holy shit at the MA just never played tribes religiously like us? I hope they have at least a few tribes junkies working on it...

I think I played so many hundreds of hours of Tribes 1&2 my memories are all a blur of the various maps and mods. If they can just re-create the fun of being a sniper on the edge of the map, far from the action, headshotting guys who are just grey outlines in the distance while listening for the sound of someones footsteps/jetpack sneaking up on you, I would be more than content.

If they just improved the graphics and gave us the exact same game I would not be upset.

one of my other favorite gaming moments in tribes 2 was in an arena server, it was something like 10v10, my team got wiped down to only me, there were 5 enemies left. This was on the sky arena map, giant square, lots of places to fall down, no skiing etc. I managed to pick off 2 of them while they were relatively alone, thanks to my loadout, which was always spinfusor, sniper rifle, shocklance, and energy pack. I still had to engage 3 who were all together fighting me, i managed to MA one of them and made him fall off the map, another let me see his back in my weaving around them, which ended him up with a shocklance to the ass. The last one i just killed because the dummy used up all his energy flying around and had to land, I imagine everyones jaw was on the floor after that escapade.

So it looks like Hi Rez is at least in the right frame of mind with things. Again, from their facebook page:

Hi-Rez Studios, developer of the upcoming Tribes: Ascend multiplayer FPS, will be providing prizes for the championship team in the Tribes 2: Ten Year Anniversary Tournament.

The project was initiated by a dedicated player and has blossomed into a full 240 player tournament. The tournament is currently in its third week and will continue for a total of eight weeks of Tribes 2 action. At the end of the eight weeks the winning team will be rewarded with Tribes: Ascend gear and an opportunity to participate in a private Q&A session with the Tribes: Ascend development team.

“This is a great opportunity to reward dedicated players of the Tribes franchise and gather valuable perspective from top tier players,” says Todd Harris, Hi-Rez Studios COO.

Hi-Rez representatives will be watching and attending games as the tournament progresses.

Adds Stew Chisam, Executive Producer of Tribes: Ascend, “We are excited to see how this plays out. We are preserving all the key elements of a Tribes game: most importantly frenetic pace and unparalleled maneuverability. And it will be interesting to see what nuances high-level players and teams most value as we continue to develop our successor title.”

“Despite being over a decade old, the Tribes franchise continues to have a dedicated following, and players both new and old are thrilled by the extent to which their passion is shared by the Tribes: Ascend team. We hope that this year will mark not just the anniversary of a legendary game, but the birth of a new one.” - Wormwood, Tribes 2: Ten Year Anniversary Tournament Administrator

Tournament updates and the winner will be announced so stay tuned and keep an eye out for Hi-Rez-tagged spectators in the upcoming weeks.